First, thanks to Blister Bob and his friendly service and hospitality.
I didn’t keep a real log so I’m pulling this all from my less than prefect memory.
Started out on the 4th at Flagg Mountain a little after 2 PM.
Driving up to start the hike we saw a Hawk and a Turkey, so I took that to be a good sign. Actually I saw at least one turkey every day, and twice had the #%$& scared of me by one. Of course I think they would say the same thing…
The first afternoon was just the new section at Flagg I think it measured about 5.8 miles down to the gate on 56. The first half was fairly easy and I could see that others had been using the flagged path a bit. But from the creek out to the clear cut it didn’t seem to have been used much since it was flagged. Counting the hawk and Turkey Blister Bob and I saw I saw a total of 3 turkeys, two hawks, one rather large, and 2 deer.
The road walk to Rebecca wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I stopped at the first creek north of the store and got water and had a snack. Talked with several people along the way. Several offered water or a coke, and even got ask for directions. When I got to Rebecca I stopped at the second little stream and got 5 liters of waters. The trail through here is fairly easy but the new parts could be very muddy if you have had a recent rain.
The 3rd day brought me to Bulls gap and a water and food stash. Had dinner that afternoon at the power lines at mile 40. Over all the trail was in fair shape that day, some places could have used some trimming with a weed eater. The area around Heath and Sherman cliff comes to mind. The skys were clear and views were excellent. Night was a different story, a good rainstorm with a middle of the night tarp adjustment.
The next day I came down to Scots Lake/Cascade and it was warm enough I washed off, rinsed out my shirt and made the mistake of rinsing my socks…, got through Porters gap, and past Talladega creek were I grabbed plenty water and took a break, and up towards Clairmont Gap.
Next day I got to Adams gap a little after noon. I had stashed some water here also so wouldn’t have go down to Skyway trail for water. But there was water going up from Adams in a couple of the little springs. Made it up the Stairway and to Heaven. There was water at the intersection of the Odum/Silent/Pinhoti, and I made it up to about a mile and half from Mcdill before I stopped for the night.
The rain/misty fog came in and hung around a most of the day. Got my food supply from Bob at Cheaha, and headed off to section 7. The change from the dry ridge line walks to creeks, streams and bottoms was great change, and really slaps you in the face with the diversity of the trail. It was wet all day but this was one of my favorite days because of the change, even though I did slip and bust my *** once. Camped at a small camp past Hillabee Creek.
This day would be my last as I went from section 7, and through section 8. The area around CR 24 is very nice and does have trails that lead off to a nice spill way for a small lake. And there is a nice waterfall on this section.
This was my first multi night hike. I had decided I wasn’t going to finish when I realized/thought my phone charge was not to last. I now realize that using the portable charger would have made it. But since I had not tested it prior I did not want to chance it. Then after washing my socks, and of course they never fully dried. Which lead me to having to re-tape several wear areas on my feet more than I anticipated, so I ran out of tape. I could have hitched in a got some, but I figured that the Trail head at South FS 500 was as good a place as any to stop. I’ll go back this fall and knock out another 5/6 days.
Overall the trail was in pretty good shape. There were some blow downs, and a few areas where you really had to pay attention. But really only one part in section 8 were the sticker plants were getting bad, but it is not to long.
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